Deathly Still Waters
by dazai-san
Summary: The general consensus of Hogwarts's residents is that Shisui Uchiha is quite possibly the strangest person or thing to ever enter their school. [updates on Saturdays.]
1. Posthumous

**Title:** Deathly Still Waters

 **Summary:** The general consensus of Hogwarts's residents is that Shisui Uchiha is quite possibly the strangest person or thing to ever enter their school.

 **Notes:** princess amaryllis/half-truths does not own Naruto or Harry Potter and does not make any profit from it, nor does she intend to.

This fanfiction is a crossover between the manga Naruto and the works of literature Harry Potter and will contain **spoilers** for both series.

It's rated T, and therefore safe for those who are able to stomach swearing, violence, and inappropriate language.

There are no pairings other than canon ones.

It's also unbetaed, for the author does not wish to go through the hassle of doing so. Because of the author's preferred writing style, all chapters will be written in third person, **present** tense rather than the usual past. Additionally, the author uses American English; therefore any mistakes regarding British English may be pointed out.

There are mentions of trauma/suicide, because that's essentially Shisui's character.

If none of the above warnings turn you off, feel free to continue. They will apply to all chapters in this story.

.

 _Chapter One: Posthumous_

Shisui is quite certain that he drowned.

He still remembers the sensation, the sensation of fighting every single instinct in his body telling him to find air.

He's also quite certain he had been blind when he drowned. Danzo had stolen one eye, and he'd given his other to Itachi. (He hopes his precious little cousin is using it right.)

So when his eyes open with a sharp intake of air, he's naturally quite surprised when light floods his vision and air fills his lungs. Experimentally he exhales.

"He's awake," comes a female voice in a language that Shisui doesn't recognize yet understands, and he blinks, eyes watering from the brightness, and forces himself to sit up, feeling oddly lethargic, his mouth dry as Suna. White blankets (definitely a hospital) pool around his waist as he takes in the area.

There are two people in the room, both foreign looking and dressed strangely. The female probably the medic, since she's the one hovering by his bedside and looking concerned, not to mention the scent of medicine clinging to her person. A wizened man is sitting on the bed to Shisui's right. Neither of them are making any threatening glances, and in the case they should try to attack, he can feel the thin but strong senbon strapped to his leg, not to mention his Sharingan. Thankfully his hitai-ate is sitting on the table beside him.

The woman presses a glass of clear water into Shisui's hand and when he looks at it, he feels sick despite how irrational it is. He had _chosen_ to drown himself after all, and he's a shinobi. Something as minor as a glass of water shouldn't faze him this much.

But it does, because he'd swallowed enough of the substance when he drowned, and speaking of which, he still doesn't understand how he's here, with both his eyes, and he can feel the tingle of chakra behind his eyes that tells him his Sharingan is there.

"No thanks," he croaks, hating how hoarse his voice is, and dry swallows. His saliva is thick and he can barely get it passed his throat.

"Nonsense," snorts the medic in a tone that all experienced medics seem to have— _do as I say unless you want to suffer_. "You clearly need water. You are dehydrated, young man."

"We haven't poisoned it, either," the old man says gently with a sparkle behind his round glasses. "You needn't worry about that possibility while you're in the infirmary. Poppy here would slaughter any offenders." He chuckles slightly.

Shisui is rather ashamed of his initial lack of thinking about the poison—he's a _shinobi_ , goddammit, and he's not allowed this many screw ups at once.

"Drink, and we can talk afterwards," the medic, Poppy, huffs, helping Shisui bring the glass to his lips.

He drinks and swallows and one part of him is panicking from the lack of air because he's drowning again and the other is relishing the coolness going down his throat and eventually the latter half wins out and he finishes the glass.

"What's your name, young man?" inquires the old man.

"What is _yours_?" Shisui retorts, the hand under the sheets stroking the senbon nervously. While they might not have killed him or slipped a truth serum into his water yet, he's not about to trust them. He's a shinobi, after all.

"I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, a school of magic and witchcraft," answers the old man, and Shisui's trained eyes see no hints of lying. "It's not my full name, but most people find it far too long, so I'll spare you the full one. You may call me Professor if you wish."

"I'm Poppy Pomfrey," the medic says in a professional tone of voice, checking Shisui's vitals while he holds still, letting her do so despite it bothering him slightly—but that's most shinobi, after all.

Deciding to be honest for now, Shisui says warily, "I am Shisui Uchiha. What am I doing here, and where is this?"

"A student here discovered you on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest, of all places," Pomfrey sniffs. "That was two days ago. What you were doing near there is beyond me. Just be glad you're alive, Shisui."

"You're in the same Hogwarts I'd mentioned earlier," Dumbledore adds, long and spidery fingers laced together on his lap. "We're about a week into the term."

"So, you are unaware of how I appeared close by to this… Forbidden Forest?" Shisui inquires. He's mildly amazed at the fact that there's someone as uncreative, if not more so, than the person who named the Forest of Death back in Konoha.

"I am afraid that we don't know," Dumbledore responds with a slight shake of his head. "Do you remember anything before waking up here?"

"Yes," Shisui answers immediately. "I was drowning." He bites back the _myself_. "I'm am positive that I have never heard of this school anywhere, and I believe the Naka River is nowhere near here."

Both Pomfrey and Dumbledore look mildly disturbed at the way he speaks of his own death so nonchalantly. "The Naka River is in Japan," Dumbledore muses. "That is quite far from here, which is in Scotland."

"Both those places are unfamiliar to me. I hail from Konohagakure, Fire Country."

"Those places are unfamiliar to us, as well," Dumbledore replies, looking quite curious. "Perhaps you come from a different dimension? It is hardly impossible."

"Yeah, maybe," Shisui sighs, running a hand through his hair and dropping the formal speech. It's frankly rather exhausting. "I honestly… don't know what to _do_ here," he admits. "I mean, I _lived_ for Konoha, and I died for it, and there's no Konoha here."

"If you would like, you could stay here for the time being," Dumbledore suggests. "Maybe we can find a way to send you back to your home."

Shisui hesitates before thinking, _Ah, fuck it. I'm dead, anyways._

"Sounds like fun."

.

 **a/n:** For some unexplainable reason, Shisui's always been one of my favorite characters in Naruto, and so here's some tribute to him.

By the way, everything will be explained eventually, so no worries. Also, the chapters will definitely be a lot longer than this one.

I'll update once per week, on Saturdays.

So please leave a review?

 **Sneak peek:** _As soon as he enters, a pair of twins practically jump at him, probably expecting him to jump or something. Shisui simply blinks, having sensed their presences beforehand. "Good morning to you, too," Shisui says dryly._


	2. Pranks and Politics

_Chapter Two: Pranks and Politics_

Harry is in the middle of scooping food onto his plate at dinner when the doors to the Great Hall open, and Dumbledore enters. Only now does Harry realize that he'd been gone in the first place.

But it's not Dumbledore that gains his attention in the end. It's the boy, maybe a year or two older than him, walking into the room behind him in the same clothes they'd found him in and awake, dark eyes bright and surveying the room with a strange detachedness.

Hermione lets out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, he's fine," she says with a smile as Dumbledore whispers something to the boy and points in their direction. Harry assumes he's telling him who'd found him.

The boy heads over, his steps oddly graceful and eerily silent for someone with such a cheerful and lazy look about him as he makes his way over to them. Once he reaches them, he grins. "Hey, thanks for finding me and not leaving me to the wolves. I'm Shisui Uchiha, nice to meet you."

Hermione gestures to the open spot next to her. "Have a seat! You must be hungry; you've been out the past two days. I'm Hermione Granger, by the way. It's nice to meet you too, Shisui."

Hesitantly, Shisui takes a seat and looks around, looking rather uncomfortable and Harry can't fault him for that. "I'm Harry Potter," he tells him, and much to his delight and surprise, Shisui doesn't react to the name.

"Ron Weasley," his redheaded friend says from beside him. "Nice to meet you, mate. Great to see you're finally awake."

"How did you find yourself on the edge of the _Forbidden Forest_ , anyways?" Harry inquires, curious as he takes a bite of his food. Strangely, Shisui doesn't touch anything.

"I don't know," Shisui answers, propping his head on one arm, his free hand drumming a soft rhythm against the table. "I just remember drowning and waking up here." He frowns.

" _Drowning_?" Hermione gasps. "Are you alright? How did it happen? Why didn't anyone save you? Was there anyone there?"

"Easy, Granger-san," hums Shisui, sounding _amused_ of all things. "I'm fine now, don't worry."

"That doesn't answer any of my questions!" Hermione huffs, exasperated and practically radiating concern. "And you can just call me Hermione," she adds as an afterthought.

"Alright, _Hermione_ -san," Shisui replies. He pauses, as if formulating a response. "I don't… really want to talk about it," is what he settles on.

"Where are you from?" Ron asks hastily, clearly choosing to change the subject.

"Dumbledore-san thinks I might be from a separate world," Shisui answers, looking mildly relieved. "I come from Konoha, Fire Country, but it seems there is no such place here. That theory, unfortunately, doesn't answer a few of my questions, though."

"What's Konoha like?" Harry asks, interest piqued. Being from another world _isn't_ unlikely, considering the wide variety of magic…

Shisui hesitates for a few moments as though deciding what the tell them before answering. "Konoha… it's one of the primary Hidden Villages and governs over the Fire Country. Our ninja have what we call the Will of Fire, but it manifests in many different ways, which we call our nindo, or ninja way."

"Bloody hell, you're a ninja?" Ron exclaims at the same time Hermione frowns and says, "But ninjas are from _Japan_ , and they're no longer around!"

"That's why Dumbledore-san assumes I come from another world," Shisui says before tapping the strange headband he's wearing. "This is what Konoha nin receive once they graduate from the Academy. Once we graduate, we're allowed to go out on missions, but only D-ranks to begin with."

"What are D-ranks?" Harry inquires with a frown as he takes another bite. His food's gone cold.

"We have a ranking system for the difficulty of missions. The harder the more expensive and the harder, the more dangerous," Shisui explains in a patient tone of voice. "It's from D to S, to put it simply. D-ranks are like chores you do for people, and S-ranks are when you're hired to scout out incredibly dangerous territory or assassinate important figures with powerful guards. Only the elite of the elite, ANBU, are authorized to take S-ranks."

 _Assassinate?_ Harry thinks privately, but nobody voices the question. Shisui seems to be a nice person, even if he seems so guarded all the time, though that might be attributed to his job.

"So, can you tell me what's been going on around here?" he asks.

Hermione jumps right into it. "We're having the Triwizard Tournament this year, and it hasn't been hosted in a _long_ time!" she exclaims, excited. "It's basically…"

Much to Harry's surprise, Shisui listens to Hermione carefully and actually seems interested while he and Ron just tune their friend out as she gives Shisui the details of the Triwizard Tournament, along with its history and about every rule there is.

Eventually, they have to head up to the Gryffindor dorms, and they bid Shisui goodbye. Hermione looks incredibly cheerful at finding someone who'll actually listen to her, and Harry watches as Shisui heads down the hall, footsteps still eerily silent.

.

Shisui yawns as he heads down to the Great Hall.

Last night, he'd done some rounds of Hogwarts and checked his supply of weaponry. He doesn't have much, but it'll work well until he can find some more for himself. The senbon is still there, and luckily Dumbledore hadn't taken his tanto away. He'd grown somewhat attached to it.

This "Triwizard Tournament" sounds interesting as well, if not as interesting as the Chuunin Exams are. The challenges Hermione had described to him didn't seem all that challenging to him, but he kept his thoughts to himself.

Also, he hadn't touched anything at the table last night, he hadn't eaten the two days before, and who knows how long he'd been lying there in the Forbidden Forest? (Which he seriously needs to go check out.) Luckily, Dumbledore had been kind enough to tell him where the kitchen is, and he'd just gone there.

As soon as he enters, a pair of twins practically jump at him, probably expecting him to jump or something. Shisui simply blinks, having sensed their presences beforehand. "Good morning to you, too," Shisui says dryly.

"If it isn't—"

"—the ickle boy—"

"—that Harikins and—"

"—Ronnikins and—"

"—Hermione—"

"—had found!"

"Why don't you—"

"—introduce yourself—"

"—to us," they finish together.

"Why don't you introduce yourselves to me?" Shisui retorts with a roll of his eyes. "Be polite."

"Ooh!"

"A feisty one!"

"Alright then, I'm—"

"—George—"

"—and he's—"

"—Fred!"

The one on the right, with the slightly longer hair and a few freckles less, had said that. Shisui tilts his head. "No, you're Fred, and he's George," he corrects. "I know a liar when I hear one. If you really must know my name, I'm Shisui."

The twins grin widely, holding their hands innocently behind their back.

"And your—"

"—last name?"

"What's yours?"

"Weasley."

"Uchiha."

"Well, nice to—"

"—meet you, Shisui!"

Fred holds out his hand to shake.

"What did you put on that?" Shisui inquires, raising an eyebrow.

"My dear friend—"

"—whatever could you—"

"—be talking about?"

"At least be a little more discreet when attempting to prank someone," Shisui sighs before holding out his hand to shake.

Fred takes it with a grin, only to yelp and pull away. Shisui dangles a senbon from his fingers, grinning widely.

"What the bloody hell is that?" George asks, fascinated.

"Looks like a giant needle!"

"A senbon," Shisui answers, flipping the senbon around before stashing it up his sleeve again. "No, you can't have it. I am severely limited on how many sharp, pointy objects I have, and I like my sharp, pointy objects."

"Well, it was—"

"—very much fun—"

"—to talk to you—"

"—Shisui, but—"

"—we'd like to—"

"—go eat breakfast—"

"—so enjoy yours—"

"—and hopefully we can—"

"—do some pranks—"

"—together," they finish.

Shisui blinks. "Sure. See you." He heads off as they separate, casually stepping over the clear oil they'd set up on the ground, and walks towards the table in green to say hello.

"Hey," he says with a cheerful grin, coming to a stop behind a boy with pale hair.

"Who are you?" he sniffs haughtily.

Not put out at all (he an Uchiha, after all), Shisui continues to smile guilelessly at the boy. "I believe it's considered polite to introduce oneself before asking the other's name," he hums. "But I'm Shisui Uchiha."

The boy narrows his eyes in irritation. "I am Draco _Malfoy_ ," he replies coldly, putting emphasis on his surname.

"Ah! An important family or clan here, then?" Shisui inquires. At Malfoy's jerky nod, Shisui simply answers, "I'm from one as well. My best friend will inherit the clan soon." _If there is a clan by then…_

Malfoy's eyes widen almost comically, and his demeanor does a one-eighty. "It is a… pleasure to meet you, Uchiha."

"Just call me Shisui," Shisui replies, amused. "I'm not _that_ important to the clan. It's nice to meet you as well, Malfoy-san."

"Shisui, then," Malfoy says slowly, nodding slightly. "You seem to be a rather pleasant person, but your choice in companions was… questionable at dinner."

Shisui tilts his head as though confused, feigning emotion nearly perfectly. "Malfoy-san? Who may you speaking of? Harry, Hermione, and Ron are all perfectly fine people to get along with."

Malfoy sneers. "They are imbeciles, the lot of them. They lack respect for their superiors, and they constantly are in trouble."

"Is that so," Shisui replies, shoving down his irritation at the boy's bigotry. "But I think I'll judge what they're like for myself. They do seem carry more respect for others than you, at any rate, if your initial reaction to me is anything to go by. Have a nice day, Malfoy-san."

Before Malfoy can reply, Shisui turns on his heel and strolls away, leaving him with his mouth hanging open.

 _Hogwarts really is huge,_ Shisui muses, Malfoy already pushed to the back of his mind. _I suppose I'll have to spend the next week or so exploring._

Then, _I hope Itachi's okay._

.

 **a/n:** I don't hate Malfoy, by the way. He's just a little… irritating. He'll play a larger role later on.

Excuse the late update, my internet was down. I hate the feeling.

Also, Shisui was rather vague in his explaining of Konoha; in fact, it's actually pretty general, enough so that it describes most of the Hidden Villages (with ninja). So what I wrote for Shisui doesn't give away too much, in case you're worried about that.

Reviews are loved! The reception the first chapter got for this story is frankly amazing.

 **Sneak peek:** _He looks up from his book on the history of Quidditch, acting as though he hadn't heard them approach. "The one and only," he replies good-naturedly with a smirk to see a Slytherin, perhaps his age or so. "Who're you?"_


	3. Relationships

_Chapter Three: Relationships_

"Ah, Shisui, come in."

He does as asked, entering the office. As soon as he passes through the doorway, he sheds his cheerful demeanor and adopts his professional one— _Karasu_.

"Good evening, Dumbledore-san." His voice is cool, clipped, and bitingly polite, and clearly it comes as a shock to the staff members in the room. The one named Minerva McGonagall adjusts her glasses and seems to see him in a new light.

"Do you remember what we discussed in the infirmary, on your first day, Shisui?" Dumbledore inquires.

"Yes," Shisui answers immediately. "I assume the topic you are speaking of is also the topic of conversation for us here."

"You are correct, of course," Dumbledore agrees, his spidery fingers linked on his desk. "Staff of Hogwarts, this is Shisui Uchiha. He hails from Konohagakure, or the Hidden Leaf Village, located in Fire Country. This place may sound unfamiliar to you, because it is very possible that he has come from another world via dimensional portkey, which you all know is illegal."

The staff break into murmurs, and the man with the long nose and greasy hair, Severus Snape, gives Shisui a suspicious look. Dumbledore waits for them to quiet down before continuing. "Shisui, if you would please?"

"Yes, sir. I come from the Leaf, the village that governs all in the Fire Country. We are a ninja village, and we are the main source of income for the village," Shisui says monotonously. "I am one of those ninjas, and in exchange for your hospitality, I have offered to serve as an extra defense measure for the school. I assure that I am competent."

McGonagall's lips thin. "Young man, how old are you?"

"I am sixteen."

"Albus!" She turns towards the Headmaster. "He is not even of age! He is but a _child_!"

Shisui feels a twinge of irritation, but he forces it down. "There are no children in a land where war runs rampant," he says flatly. "We may have been in an era of peace, but nobody believes that it will last. Do you know what war, _true_ war, does to a person? To a _child_?"

"Are you implying that what we fought with You-Know-Who wasn't a war?" hisses the man with the greasy black hair, Snape.

"Have you been on a battlefield, holding your teammate in his last moments as his blood stains your clothes and the grass below you, knowing that he had a child back home, and that that same child had lost his mother three days prior?" he asks, voice very, very quiet. "Have you struck a woman down from behind, only for her lover to run right onto the same blade in despair? Have you ever been driven to _brainwashing_ the leader of your _clan_ , your _family_ , because the other option was to _slaughter them all_ , the children, the elderly?"

It is suddenly very, very quiet.

"I do not believe so," Shisui says icily. "I assure you, I am an adult. I am no child. And I am competent. I believe there will be no more complaints."

Without waiting for a reply, Shisui spins on his heel and marches out of the room.

.

"Mister Uchiha."

Shisui blinks and turns, looking upwards to meet McGonagall's gaze, which regards him with a strange new respect. "Can I help you?" he inquires warily.

"I would like to apologize for last night."

"You don't need to do that," Shisui replies airily. "Cultural differences and all. It's merely a minor offense and hardly the worst."

McGonagall looks at him cautiously. "I suppose so. But take care of yourself, Mister Uchiha."

She stalks passed him. Shisui's not entirely certain if she knows, but she does act so much like a cat.

.

"Hello!"

The only one that doesn't jump at his sudden appearance is the girl with the dreamy expression, and she turns with a greeting of her own. "Hello. You're Shisui Uchiha."

Shisui grins. A strange one, this one is. "Yeah, that's me. Sorry, I don't know your name though."

"I'm Luna Lovegood," she tells him. "It's alright if you don't. I'm not famous, and it's not as if we've spoken before." Luna peers at him strangely. "You don't seem to have many Wrackspurts flying around your head. Curious."

"Pardon?"

"Wrackspurts," Luna explains patiently. "They're creatures—"

"Oh, don't listen to her," cuts in another Ravenclaw. "She'll only believe in things as long as there is no evidence to prove their existences. Not mention, her family runs the Quibbler."

Shisui raises an eyebrow at her rudeness, but nobody seems to care, and Luna looks as if she's perfectly accustomed to such behavior. "There doesn't seem to be any evidence for Muggles that unicorns and dragons exist, either," he retorts dryly. "Just because you don't believe in something doesn't make it any less real."

"That's _different_!" sputters the girl. "Unicorns and dragons _do_ exist, you can see for yourself!"

"She can see Wrackspurts," Shisui replies flatly. "Honestly, you're of the _Ravenclaw_ house; the one that's supposed to be diplomatic and smart. Can't you provide a decent argument to prove that they aren't real _without_ offending Lovegood-san?"

The girl flushes, a mix of anger and embarrassment.

"Thank you," Luna says sincerely. "Their nonsensical carping about my beliefs really don't bother me but it's nice to be stood up for."

Shisui grins. "No problem, Lovegood-san."

"It's just Luna," Luna tells him.

.

Shisui walks along the empty corridor, blinking when he sees a Hufflepuff boy, at least a fifth year from his Prefects' badge, passing by. "Good afternoon."

"Oh!" The boy stops. "You're Shisui Uchiha, right? I'm Cedric Diggory, nice to meet you."

He smiles. "Nice to meet you too, Diggory-san. Might I ask where you're going?"

"It's just Cedric," he corrects with a smile of his own. "I'm just heading for the dorms. Since I've got nothing better to do, I'm just going to study. What about you?"

"Eh, I'm heading out to the Quidditch pitch," he answers with a stretch. "Thought I might go through my katas or something."

"What're those?" Cedric inquires, curious.

"They're stances for combat, usually used for forms for martial arts," Shisui replies. "They're a form of exercise, I guess. Don't want to get rusty and all."

Cedric grins. "Well, you go do that. Have fun."

"I'd say the same, but can't say that studying sounds like much fun," Shisui jokes with a wave, heading off.

.

"You're Shisui Uchiha, am I correct?"

He looks up from his book on the history of Quidditch, acting as though he hadn't heard them approach. "The one and only," he replies good-naturedly with a smirk to see a Slytherin, perhaps his age or so. "Who're you?"

"Marcus Flint. I see you going around from table to table," Marcus says suspiciously. " _Including_ Slytherin. What's the point?"

"Making new friends, is there something wrong with that?" Shisui answers innocently. "Relationships are important, Flint-san." He grins. "I can see why you're in Slytherin, if you're so suspicious of little old me."

Marcus snorts. "Just watch yourself, Uchiha. I swear to god, if I find another wad of gum on the Slytherin table, I am going to slaughter you."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Flint-san." Shisui's face is the perfect picture of innocence while internally he's snickering.

Marcus narrows his eyes, and it's an _amazingly_ pissy look. "Stop lying."

Shisui drops the act with a laugh. "To be fair, I _did_ help the Weasley twins dye the Ravenclaws' hair pink, and drop paint on the Hufflepuffs…"

Marcus growls, though it's not even angry anymore, and he turns around with a huff. With growing amusement, Shisui realizes there's a huge wad of gum in the wizard's hair.

.

"Ah… you're Neville Longbottom, right?"

The boy jumps, nearly dropping the potted plant he's holding, and turns around with wide eyes. "Y-yeah, that's me," he stammers. "You're Shisui, right?"

"Yep," Shisui confirms. "You seem to be pretty good with plants, Longbottom-san."

Neville beams nervously. "I-it's just Neville, Shisui."

Shisui nods. "Alright." He looks around, taking in the plants in the greenhouse. "You must be rather skilled if Professor Sprout trusts you here without supervision."

"I-I'm mostly useless in other subjects," Neville mumbles, "but I've always been pretty good with plants, like I know how to care for them and all… but anyone can do that."

 _Okay, this kid has serious self-esteem issues._ "But I've never seen any plants as vibrant as these," Shisui muses, and it's the truth. "You might not be skilled in other subjects, but you're exceptional in taking care of plants. What about your Potions grade?"

Neville pales quickly. "T-that's my worst subject…"

He frowns. "Why would it be? I'd expected it to be second to your Herbology grade, since they're linked more often than not. Most wizards who grow plants grow Potions ingredients."

"W-well, Professor S-Snape doesn't like me… he, uh, scares me."

Shisui blinks. "Is that all?"

"H-huh?"

"Just pretend he doesn't exist. Read the instructions on the board, and read them carefully. Don't mess up. Use the book if necessary. If he comes by, just take a couple of deep breaths before continuing. He can't hurt you, remember that."

Neville considers, setting the plant down. "I-I guess I can try that," he concedes.

"Oh, and stop being a doormat," Shisui adds with a cheerful smile. "You can stand up for yourself, you know."

Neville returns the smile tentatively. "Thanks, Shisui."

.

Shisui rises from his kneeling position, smiling a little sadly at the piece of slate on the table before him, the smell of incense pervading the room.

 _Wherever you are, please, please watch over Itachi. Protect him, please._

.

 **a/n:** Not proofread so point out any errors please.

Reviews are loved~!

 **Sneak peek:** _At that moment, a loud bubbling noise sounds, and Shisui turns towards the lake, a place he's avoided like the plague for a while. He watches, fascinated, as a ship rises out of a whirlpool in the middle of the lake._


	4. Kaleidoscope

_Chapter Four: Kaleidoscope_

Shisui stands by Dumbledore's side, head tilted upwards as he watches a large shape descend towards them. Several students start shouting about what it is ("It's a dragon!" "No, it's a flying house!") as it comes closer.

It turns out to be a carriage pulled by huge pegasi, and it lands with a loud crash, the horses whinnying loudly as the occupants exit the carriage. He spots the trio he's come to become friends of some sorts with chattering to each other.

The second person to leave the carriage is a humongous woman that Shisui has to tilt his head up all the way to see her face. Dumbledore begins to clap politely, and Shisui does the same with some prompting from the wizard.

"My dear Madame Maxime," he says formally. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Dumbly-dorr," rumbles the woman, Maxime. "I 'ope I find you well?" She gives Shisui a couple of curious looks.

"In excellent form, I thank you," Dumbledore replies.

"These are my pupils," Maxime says, waving her hand in the direction of the children already outside. "'As Karkaroff arrived yet?"

"He should be here any moment now," Dumbledore answers. "Would you like to wait here to greet him, or would you prefer staying inside?"

"Warm up, I think," Maxime says, "but ze 'orses… zey are very strong, and require, ah, forceful 'andling, and zey only drink single-malt whiskey."

"I assure you that Hagrid is up to the task." Dumbledore smiles, and Maxime beckons her students to go into the castle.

"Well," Shisui says after the woman is gone. "They are certainly… flamboyant."

Dumbledore chuckles. "I suppose they are, but I suppose we wizards love showing off."

At that moment, a loud bubbling noise sounds, and Shisui turns towards the lake, a place he's avoided like the plague for a while. He watches, fascinated, as a ship rises out of a whirlpool in the middle of the lake.

People begin coming out of the ship, looking around. A man, clearly the Headmaster, walks up towards them and gives Shisui a curious glance before saying to Dumbledore, "Dumbledore! How are you, my dear fellow, how are you?"

"Blooming, why thank you, Professor Karkaroff," Dumbledore responds mildly. Karkaroff shakes Dumbledore's hand with both.

"Dear old Hogwarts. How wonderful it is to be here, how wonderful. Viktor, come here, into the warmth. You don't mind, do you, Dumbledore? Viktor has a slight head cold."

One of his students steps forward, and Shisui raises an eyebrow at the blatant favoritism. Suddenly, the students behind them break into excited chatter as they head back into the Great Hall, and Shisui manages to conclude that this Viktor is famous.

He and his school, Durmstrang, sit with the Slytherins while the Beauxbaton students have decided on the Ravenclaw table, looking glum. Surely it can't be that cold?

Shisui follows Dumbledore to his seat, standing behind him once the Headmaster has arrived, but still stands. He spots the Beauxbaton students scrambling to stand as Maxime takes her seat on Dumbledore's left, Karkaroff on the right.

"Good evening, ladies, gentlemen, ghosts, guests," Dumbledore begins. "I welcome you all to Hogwarts with open arms. I hope that your stay here will be comfortable and enjoyable. The tournament will be opened at the end of the feast. I now invite you all to eat, drink, and make yourselves at home!"

Dumbledore finally takes his seat, and immediately, food appears on the tables. The chatter rises, and Karkaroff finally says, "Dumbledore, who's this?"

"Why don't you introduce yourself?"

Shisui blinks and nods. "I'm Shisui Uchiha, it's a pleasure to meet you, Karkaroff-san, Maxime-san. I'm here as a guard for the time being."

"A guard?" Maxime inquires incredulously. "But you are so young."

"I'm really not," Shisui says dryly with a sigh. "I'm sixteen and world-weary already. But I fail to see how my age is relevant when it is my skill that matters."

Karkaroff nods approvingly. "That is true." Dumbledore's blue eyes flash dangerously for a moment, so quickly Shisui almost misses it.

"Ah, Ludo, Mr. Crouch, you've arrived!" Dumbledore calls, and suddenly Shisui's sixth sense is tingling. He narrows his eyes and very, very briefly activates his Sharingan, eyes flashing red before returning to their usual black.

Quickly, Dumbledore introduces Shisui to Bagman and Crouch. "Won't you have anything, Mister Uchiha?" Bagman asks.

"No, thank you," Shisui declines. "I'll have something later. The food here is too rich for me."

That is the last anyone says to him, though they certainly do talk _about_ him.

Once all of the food has disappeared, Dumbledore stands up, ready to give his speech detailing the Triwizard Tournament. Having heard plenty about it from Hermione and Dumbledore himself, he tunes him out and shifts his weight to his right leg.

Filch, upon being called, brings a large and ancient wooden chest decorated with jewels to the table and sets it in front of Dumbledore before slinking away. Shisui studies it with mild interest, already knowing how it'll work.

"—Good night to you all," Dumbledore finishes, and with that the students begin to head out towards their respective areas. "Would you care to speak with me a while, Shisui?"

"No problem," Shisui answers with a dip of his head. "Do you want me to wait for you in your office?"

"That would be alright with me," Dumbledore agrees, and Shisui heads out of the Hall, wishing desperately that he could use his trademark shunshin.

He gives the gargoyle the password and makes his way up the long spiral stairs, taking a seat to wait for the Headmaster.

Maybe twenty or so minutes later, Dumbledore enters his office and takes a seat with a sigh, taking off his glasses and polishing them. He's not smiling.

"You wished to speak with me?" Shisui prompts.

"I trust you know who Voldemort is, and what Death Eaters are."

Shisui nods in affirmation. "A Dark Lord, and the Death Eaters are his followers."

"Karkaroff is an ex-Death Eater," Dumbledore sighs, replacing his glasses carefully. "I advise you to be careful around that man. He is dangerous."

"Ah, but so am I," Shisui reminds the wizard. "He cannot do much without a wand." At Dumbledore's look, Shisui adds, "I am not being arrogant, Dumbledore-san. I speak the truth. Should I remove any given wizard's wand, they will be quite helpless—certainly, some of you powerful ones are able to cast wandless magic, but that is hardly everyone, not to mention it is a lot more difficult to cast."

"Yes, I suppose that is true," Dumbledore concedes. "From what I gather, you are skilled with weaponry and hand-to-hand combat."

"Yes, I am." Shisui nods. "I am hardly the most skilled, but I am not the worst, either. It has saved my life on numerous occasions."

"What else are you able to do?"

"Forgive me if I am not about to tell you everything, but I would like to keep my secrets," Shisui answers quietly. "I can tell you some, but I cannot tell you everything."

"That is fine."

Shisui activates his Sharingan, letting Dumbledore see. Suddenly everything is in sharp detail, and he can predict Dumbledore's next movement, he can see the quick man's pulse, the chakra surrounding the entire area. "This is called the Sharingan. It provides a myriad of powers that I will not go into detail to."

"I see…"

He then activates his Mangekyo Sharingan. "This is the Mangekyo Sharingan. It's essentially an enhanced version of the Sharingan. I am one of the few unlucky ones to unlock it."

"If it is enhanced, why do you say unlucky?"

"These eyes are trademark of the Uchiha clan," Shisui begins softly, deactivating his eyes and letting his eyes fade back to black. "To unlock the normal Sharingan, one must be put under incredible stress or trauma. To unlock the Mangekyo, one must watch the person closest to them die. To unlock the Eternal Mangekyo, one must take the Mangekyo of another person's. This is why there is what we call the Curse of Hatred running through our clan. I do not believe I have fallen victim to it."

Dumbledore seems to understand the implications of what Shisui is saying. "I am sorry for your losses."

Shisui smiles, and it's a little bitter. "They are not much, not compared to so many other people's. But I assume this is not what you wish to speak of."

"No," Dumbledore agrees. "Karkaroff is not the least of our problems, however. I have a feeling that Voldemort may have a spy hidden amongst our midst."

"I share your sentiments," Shisui replies, thinking back to Crouch. "I will avoid informing you of my suspicions lest you tip him off."

"That is fine." Dumbledore nods. "You are dismissed."

Shisui rises from his seat. "Ah. What of your progress?" he inquires.

Dumbledore sighs and shakes his head. That's really all Shisui needs to know before dipping his head respectfully and leaving the room quietly.

.

 **a/n:** The Mangekyo is technically a secret of the Uchiha, but Shisui trusts Dumbledore enough to give him the information. He's not going to sell him out.

I'm also really sorry about the late update. My computer sucks and my internet is a very fickle thing.

Any guesses as to what the sneak peek is alluding to? Reviews are loved!

 **Sneak peek:** _Wordlessly, Dumbledore gives it to him, and Shisui can see the very faint tremors of rage racing through the Headmaster's body, and he gives him credit for being able to contain it so well._


	5. Of Beards, Chakra, and Flames

_Chapter Five: Of Beards, Chakra, and Flames_

Shisui walks into the Great Hall the next morning to see a pair of identical beards. He takes it in stride. "He warned you," Shisui says, amused, as he steps over their sprawled out bodies. "Though I bet I could find a way around the Age Line."

"Ha! If—"

"—we can't—"

"—find a way—"

"—how can you?"

Shisui turns towards Dumbledore. "Dumbledore-san, do I have permission to try and get past the Age Line, if only to prove a point?"

"I don't see why not," Dumbledore replies, quite amused. "Try your best, Shisui, as long as you don't end up with a beard."

He heads for the Age Line cautiously, coming to a stop at the very edge of it, and activates his Sharingan, taking in the structure of the Age Line before pulling out a piece of parchment, a quill, and a bottle of ink. Noticing something a little off about the Goblet, he pushes it to the back of his mind for later pondering.

He's not the best at seals, but he's broken past plenty of barriers more complicated that this one, so he begins scribbling the counterseal on the parchment with precise strokes, aware that several students are watching him with curiosity. Shisui shifts to give them a better view of the parchment.

 _Hmm… oh!_ He adds the marks for _single person_ , _limit_ , and _permeable_. Shisui sets his quill down and picks up the piece of paper before channeling his chakra through it. The ink glows before dimming again, telling Shisui that he'd activated it, and he slaps the parchment on the barrier that is the Age Line and steps through completely unharmed and beardless before sliding back out again, tugging the parchment off.

He turns to the twins with a wide grin. "Made it across without a beard," he singsongs cheerfully before incinerating the seal with a well-placed Katon. "I think I made my point."

"I must ask, Shisui, what, exactly, did you do?" Dumbledore inquires, clearly interested.

"Back at home, there is a style we learn called fuuinjutsu," Shisui answers, wondering what he's supposed to do with a pile of ashes. "It's the art of sealing. There used to be a country, Uzushio, that specialized in this art, but they were so powerful, Kiri invaded and destroyed it. That's because seals are so versatile, you can do literally anything with them depending on what marks and runes you use."

Fred and George perk up, interested, and the look is ridiculous when they have a huge beard sprouting. Shisui turns to them and gives them a look. "No, I will not teach you the secrets of my country. And you lack the ability to do so."

"What do you mean?" Hermione pipes up, frowning.

"It's similar to your concept of wizards and Muggles," Shisui explains. "Even if I gave you the seal, you wouldn't be able to get past the Age Line because you need to activate it with chakra, which is something you all have, but aren't able to access because you rely too much on external sources, which is the magic you draw from the air, and this causes atrophy to your chakra coils."

"Okay mate—"

"—you lost us—"

"—at 'chakra'."

Shisui frowns disapprovingly at them. "My seven year old cousin could understand a ten page mission report when he tried to read it." He pauses. "To be fair, though, he _is_ technically a prodigy. But he's still _half_ your age."

Hermione looks like she's just finished sorting through the thoughts Shisui had given her to chew on, and she opens her mouth to ask another question when Shisui holds up a hand. "I can answer your questions later," he says dryly. "Just go eat breakfast, and if you want you can talk to me in the library at lunch. And you two idiots can stop fantasizing and go to the infirmary."

.

Much to Shisui's dread and not-surprise, Hermione shows up in the library alone, eyes bright with curiosity and excitement.

"Where are your friends?" Shisui inquires, flipping a page in his fourth book about the Triwizard Tournament.

"They're with Hagrid right now," she answers, taking a seat across from him. "So, can I ask you questions?"

"I'll answer them, but I don't promise to answer you truthfully on all of them," he replies, eyes flickering over the page. It's frankly quite interesting, despite the three previous books being of the same topic.

Seemingly satisfied with the response, Hermione clears her throat. "What, exactly, _is_ chakra?"

"It's energy from within you."

"How can you obtain chakra?"

"You're born with it." Shisui frowns at the page, noticing a fact that doesn't correspond with the rest and noting it on his notebook in kanji. "You can increase your reserves through practicing using it and exercise; like a muscle."

"You said that us wizards can't use chakra because our coils have decayed; how did you tell, and why does that happen?" Belatedly, Shisui realizes she's taking notes like the diligent student she is.

"I can see chakra," Shisui answers, flipping the page. "While civilians can use chakra, they don't use it as well as ninja do, and that's partially because of the coils decaying, and partially because of their lack of training. However, your reliance on magic speeds up the process of the coils decaying."

"Is it possible to use chakra by accident?"

"Yes, but rarely. Your body automatically prevents it from lashing out randomly because if you lose all of your chakra, _boom_ , you're dead. Plenty of ninja have died from chakra exhaustion. But since magic is an external source, you don't die if you use magic too much."

"If that's the case, why haven't we wizards died, if our coils are decayed?"

Shisui furrows his brow, looking up from the book and playing with his pen. "Well, I suppose decayed isn't the correct term. _Dormant_ or _submissive_ would work better here. Look at it like this; your natural energy has been replaced with magic. Usually your body has _excessive_ chakra, allowing you to use it to do other things, but wizards have an ability to take in magic, so that excessive chakra is gone.

"Dumbledore-san and I theorize that wizards have an extra ability to take magic from the surroundings and use it as their main source of energy," Shisui continues. "However, before I arrived, the existence of chakra was unknown. Chakra is essentially what keeps you alive; your life force, but you can't mold it."

Hermione is nodding. "That sounds like a reasonable explanation," she says thoughtfully. "So wizards are separated from ninjas and muggles because of this ability to take in magic. Ninjas are different because of their ability to utilize chakra. Muggles are different because… they can't do either."

"No," Shisui corrects. "Ninjas are essentially Muggles with exceptionally high chakra reserves."

"Oh, okay, thank you!" Hermione finalizes her notes and smiles at Shisui. "This has been very enlightening! We should study some more together at a later date. You would make an excellent teacher."

Shisui scoffs. "Me? Never. I'm only this patient because I'm used to dealing with the Clan's children clambering all over me like I'm some rock wall or something." _Also, nobody in their right mind would let an_ ANBU _into the school to teach._

Hermione gives him a knowing smirk. "Ah, but if you allow children to do that, you must be good with them, right? Trust me, Shisui, you'd make an excellent schoolteacher."

"A schoolteacher," Shisui muses. "Itachi would _never_ let me live it down."

"Who's Itachi?"

"My best friend," Shisui says, thinking to the stupid little brat. He prays to the heavens, to Amaterasu, to every single god or goddess out there that his best friend is still alive and well. "He turned thirteen a few months before… that. I hope he hasn't gotten himself killed… he and that stupid little brother of his."

"I'm sure he's fine," Hermione says firmly. "I think all this reading's making you feel stuffy. Come on out and have some lunch with us. When I say 'us', I mean with Ron, Harry, and Hagrid."

Without giving him a chance to protest, Shisui finds himself being forcibly dragged out of the library by a fourteen year old girl with no ninja training.

If Itachi sees him now, he will never live it down.

.

"Well, the goblet is almost ready to make its decision," Dumbledore announces as Shisui stands at the ready. "I estimate that it requires one more minute. Now, when the champions' names are called, I would ask them to come up to the top of the Hall, walk along the staff table, and go into the next chamber where they will receiving their first instructions."

Then he waves his wand; immediately the candles go out, leaving only the ones in the carved pumpkins still ignited. Shisui blinks once to get accustomed to the semidarkness. It's then suddenly silent, waiting for the Goblet to speak up.

Suddenly, the fire flares red, and a charred piece of parchment appears, Dumbledore catching it. A collective gasp sounds around the student body. "The champion for Durmstrang," he announces, "is Viktor Krum!"

A roar of applause sounds out, and Karkaroff beams, shouting praise as the Quidditch star passes by Shisui. Krum gives Shisui another strange look and disappears into the chamber.

As soon as the noise dies down, the Goblet spews out another name, and Dumbledore reads, "The champion for Beauxbaton is Fleur Delacour!"

The hall bursts out into more cheers, and the beautiful girl rises and gracefully passes by Shisui. He'd never fallen for her charms, noting its genjutsu-like qualities and having been on seduction missions plenty of times before.

After a few seconds of silence, the Goblet gives the Hogwarts's champion's name, and Dumbledore snatches the parchment. "The Hogwarts champion will be Cedric Diggory!"

The Hufflepuff table bursts into a loud cheer, and the boy grins widely, heading for the chamber with a jump to his step.

"Wonderful!" Dumbledore says happily after the noise level has fallen once more. "Well, we now have out three champions. I am sure I can count on all of you to give your champions as much support as you can muster. By cheering—"

Suddenly the flames in the Goblet dance red again, and Shisui's eyes narrow darkly, very, very tempted to activate his Sharingan to see exactly what's wrong with it. Dumbledore grabs the paper from the flames and stares at it.

Then he says very slowly, very clearly, "Harry Potter."

It is utterly silent in the room, and Shisui's dark eyes turn to the boy, who looks beyond surprised. Then he hadn't entered his name. He can read emotions quite well, after all.

Marching forward, Shisui clears his throat and say, "The paper, if I may."

Wordlessly, Dumbledore gives it to him, and Shisui can see the very faint tremors of rage racing through the Headmaster's body, and he gives him credit for being able to contain it so well.

"Harry, come up here. I am going to run a very quick test," he calls, voice frosty.

"I—I didn't enter my name," the boy says dumbly, but he comes up anyways.

"I believe you," Shisui promises before handing a piece of parchment and a quill to Harry. "Please write your name on this sheet of paper."

Harry takes the two items shakily and writes his name. Shisui watches him carefully, and when Harry pulls away, he takes both sheets and studies them. "They are clearly different people," he says scathingly. "While it is possible that Harry could have asked an older student to submit his name for him, there are other factors to take into account here.

"One: When Harry's name was called, he was utterly shocked," Shisui begins, voice flat and hiding his anger quite well. "Two: The Goblet of Fire is a sentient being under a lot of magical charms. It is programmed to pick one champion per school, but due to it being sentient, it can also be affected by the Confundus Charm. Three: There is a binding law to the Tournament. There is no possible way a fourth year student has the resources to survive this Tournament."

Harry quivers slightly in front of him as Shisui continues.

"Four: There _is_ somebody in this world that wants Harry dead. If there is going to be a deadly Tournament, _is it not so convenient that you cannot back out of it_?"

Everything goes still as Shisui's cold gaze sweeps down the staff table, pausing on each member and taking savage delight in the fact that anyone it was subjected to flinched.

"I promise you, this will be investigated thoroughly," Shisui hisses, and his eyes gleam Sharingan red. "However dangerous you are, I assure you, I am _far more so than you._ "

On that happy note, Shisui sweeps out of the hall.

.

 **a/n:** I really suck at updating on time, don't i haha

 **Sneak peek:** _Sensing a large group of presences coming towards him, Shisui taps the senbon nervously, and he can feel his tanto hidden against his leg._


	6. Into Deadly Waters

_Chapter Six: Into Deadly Waters_

Shisui Uchiha is dangerous.

It's easy to forget, with his easy smiles, his laidback attitude, and his generally rather kind personality, that he's also dangerous.

Last night had been a permanent reminder, and Harry is beyond grateful that Shisui's frigid ruthlessness had not been directed at him, but rather _for_ him.

It's disturbingly easy to reconcile the two personalities together and think of them as the same person, and it's not just the appearance; it's the fact that Shisui's always been guarded, his smiles don't always reach his dark eyes, and he knows how to manipulate people so well.

The next morning, he takes his seat glumly, poking at his food halfheartedly while Ron and Hermione attempt to cheer him up, when Shisui comes by, looking rather sleep-deprived, and takes a seat by Hermione.

"You look like hell, mate," Ron comments bluntly.

"Stayed up all night cross-examining the staff," Shisui mumbles. "Not even done yet." He gives a long suffering sigh. "'Sides, it's hardly the worst condition 've been in."

"You should get some sleep," Hermione advises. "You're slurring."

"Yeah, I guess I should." Shisui huffs and slaps himself on the cheeks. "I can't believe I don't have more than three fucking soldier pills on me… And if you think I'm slurring now, you should've seen that time when some of the older jounin thought it'd be funny to spike about every drink at this party. Itachi, the bastard, didn't even try to stop me, though he did drag my sorry ass back home."

Harry notices with some amusement that Shisui talks a lot when he's tired. And swears a lot, too. "Listen… uh, thanks for standing up for me last night. Though you were kind of scary."

Shisui yawns and flaps a hand in Harry's direction. "'S not a problem. 'd do for anyone else."

Hermione is frowning. "Those older people thought it'd be alright for people under twenty-one to drink?" she inquires disapprovingly.

"Pfft. If we've a tolerance for poison, we can fucking drink," Shisui snorts, and Harry also realizes he lacks some self-control as well when he's tired. "Was fun, even though I had a horrible bitch of a hangover the next day. Puked over Mikoto-san's toilet seat I did." He grins. "Best part 'bout it is that she didn't even give a shit."

"Who's Mikoto?" Ron asks before grinning slyly. "Girlfriend?"

Shisui looks horrified and chokes on the juice he'd been drinking. " _No!_ " he sputters, nearly falling out of his seat. "Mikoto-san is my best friend's _mum_!"

Ron looks disgusted and highly apologetic. "I am so sorry," he says gravely sincere.

Shisui sips his juice. "You didn't mean it," he huffs. "But Fugaku-dono threw a fit. I swear, Sasuke's temper tantrums are _nowhere_ near as bad, and he's seven."

Harry grins. "Bet you liked that, didn't you."

"Yeah, right," Shisui sniffs. "Really, though, the entire Uchiha clan's kind of insufferable. Can't blame the rest of the village for thinking ill of us when most of us will look down on someone just for asking for fucking directions."

Hermione raises her eyebrow. "How… polite."

"I know right," Shisui replies dryly. "I'm somewhat of an anomaly in the compound but because of these"—here he taps his eyes, much to Harry's confusion—"they treat me alright." He glowers into his drink. "They weren't as kind to Obito, though."

"Who's Obito?" Ron asks.

"Cousin," Shisui answers immediately. "He was seven years older than me. Most of the clan hated him because he lacked the Sharingan, and he didn't act like a normal Uchiha. When he got killed on duty, _then_ they decided to honor him. Bah. And then they turned on poor Kakashi-senpai because Obito had given him his Sharingan in his last moments. Some fucker actually tried to rip it out forcibly."

Harry frowns. "That's kind of messed up, but what's the Sharingan?"

Shisui pauses as though considering something before coming to a conclusion. "Promise me you won't flip your shit."

"As long as it's not something worth flipping my shit over," Hermione retorts drolly, and Harry and Ron gape at her language. Shisui grins.

"Knew there was a reason I liked you. Now watch."

Suddenly, Shisui's dark eyes bleed into dark red, black spinning lazily in it. Harry watches, interested; it's a strange color, and rather interesting. Ron's breath hitches in mild shock and terror, while Hermione looks excited at the prospect of something new to study.

"Bloody hell," Ron breathes.

"That is _cool_ ," Harry agrees.

With a blink, Shisui's eyes return to black. "This is the Sharingan," he explains. "I'm not allowed to explain to you what mine does, but all Sharingan have the general abilities of being able to see chakra and everything else in clear detail. If I have these activated, I can see your pulse, I can copy your handwriting, and predict your next movement."

"Are these what your clan is known for?" Hermione inquires.

"Yeah," Shisui says with a sigh. "But the Sharingan is also really, really fucked up, and I'm not talking about the color. I'm talking about the price for it. To unlock the Sharingan, the Uchiha has to be put under incredible mental stress or trauma. Obito had to watch Kakashi-senpai nearly get killed to unlock his. Itachi… the experience essentially ruined him. He was _four_ , and he instantly began to despise war."

"That… why does your clan _wish_ for their children to get them soon, then?!" Hermione exclaims.

"Pride," Shisui sighs, sipping his drink and looking very, very old. "Pride for one's village is a huge part of our traditions." _But lately, not so much…_ "But sometimes that pride gets in the way as well, because we fail to see the reasoning behind other ninjas' actions. A hero known as the White Fang gave up his mission to save his friends. It fanned the flames of war, and people hated him for it because they forgot he was human as well. He committed suicide less than a year later. His eight year old son was the one to find his body."

Before Harry can open his mouth to tell Shisui exactly how messed up that is, the Uchiha glares at him to shut him up. "This is tradition," he growls. "This is how it's always been. Self-sacrifice is a ninja's first duty, and when I took up this headband, I had given up what was left of what I had for myself."

Shisui closes his eyes and exhales. "Sorry for snapping. I need to sleep. I'll see you later."

With that, he leaves his unfinished drink and plenty of things to think about behind and heads out the Great Hall. He hadn't touched anything to eat, either.

.

Shisui wakes up, rolls out of his bed, runs a hand through his hair and checks what time it is. It's about dinnertime, so Shisui decides to head for the kitchens.

After getting something to eat, he finds that he has some time left to kill before he actually has to get back to cross-examining the possible suspects. _I should go through my katas again… can't be getting rusty now,_ he thinks. _I wonder what Itachi would think of me now… and I really need to explore the Forbidden Forest. Maybe I should go now…_

Finding what he wants to do, Shisui hums and heads for it, leaving no trace of his presence as he approaches the admittedly menacing looking forest.

 _Bet it's not as terrifying as Mitarashi-san though,_ he muses, thinking back to the dango-addicted kunoichi. _Or Kakashi-senpai. Whoever can look Mitarashi-san in the eye on her favorite week of the month without batting an eyelash is terrifying._

He steps into the forest, immediately feeling at home amongst the trees. Because while they're not the same kinds as Konoha has, they're still _trees_. Shisui smiles, running a hand along the bark of the nearest tree and takes a few steps farther, his footsteps silent even on the crunchy foliage.

Shisui spots the odd bird in the tree, or the pixies flying around lazily, or the tree nymphs looking at him shyly. He waves to all of them, and they don't jump, simply blinking at him or even returning the gesture.

Sensing a large group of presences coming towards him, Shisui taps the senbon nervously, and he can feel his tanto hidden against his leg.

Then tall half-horse, half-men creatures, centaurs, appear, all carrying bows, and one aims it at him coldly. "What are you here for, human?"

"I'm merely exploring," Shisui replies honestly. "I'm not here to cause any harm to your forest—believe me, I love trees. I promise, after I've looked around a little, I'll return to the castle, and leave things the way they were before."

The lead centaur (which Shisui only assumes, since he's doing all the talking), glares at him. "I hate you humans, always crossing into our territory. Fine. As long as you bring no more of your kind here."

Shisui grins. "I knew you could see reason! I do really like it here. I might come here a little more often, just to see what it has to offer, but honestly I haven't seen much that could be more dangerous than a human."

Looking bemused, the centaur blinks before sniffing. "Bah. Do as you wish as long as you don't bother us. And take the human in our territory away, if you would."

Blinking in confusion, he tilts his head. "What're you talking about?"

"A man. Maybe twenty or so years old. Remove him if you can."

"Uh, okay. Which direction?"

"There. Keep going, and don't stop until you reach the human."

"Thanks for letting me explore," Shisui calls with a smile, heading in the direction the centaurs had pointed him in, ready to chew out which ever student had come out into the Forbidden Forest… then praise them for their bravery.

He walks for a while, enjoying the scenery and actually seeing something potentially dangerous poke its head out before scurrying away.

Eventually, he does see a figure, cloaked in black decorated with red clouds. A curious design, he muses as he comes closer, pulling out a kunai for protection.

He rolls the person over and just about has a heart attack because suddenly he can't breathe because there's something lumping in his throat and really he's not crying.

"Itachi," he manages, because even if this person is eight years older than he remembers, it's still undeniably Itachi.

.

 **a/n:** There you go. The third character tagged for this story has appeared!

Say hello to Itachi-kun.

By the way, I completely forgot to mention the origin of the title of this fic. "Shisui" is written in katakana, so it doesn't have a definition. The term "shi" can mean "death" or "stagnant" and "sui" means "water". Therefore "Deathly Still Waters".

Also: early update! I feel bad for updating late on the previous weeks so enjoy!

 **Sneak peek:** _Itachi is silent, watching him with dark eyes the same color as Shisui's own._ "You're crying," _he says simply, and Shisui starts, only just realizing, and scrubs desperately at his eyes._ Shinobi aren't supposed to cry, dammit.


	7. The Taste of Nostalgia

_Chapter Seven: The Taste of Nostalgia_

Shisui's no healer, but he does know how to dress injuries and the such; it's necessary, if he's going to be in ANBU. Activating his Sharingan, he looks over his friend to make sure that it _is_ his friend, and frowns when he sees a slight disturbance in his chakra. A genjutsu, then.

He studies it, only to find it's merely a harmless jutsu that influences the victim to sleep dreamlessly. Deciding to leave it there for now, Shisui tugs the strange cloak off and ignores the clear, bold line through Itachi's hitai-ate to assess his injuries, if he has any.

He has none, and Shisui realizes that perhaps he'd arrived in a similar fashion. Pushing the thought out of his mind to think on later, he runs his chakra through Itachi's system, breaking him from the genjutsu, and immediately, he opens his eyes and focuses on Shisui.

"Shisui?" he asks, voice very, very faint and incredulous.

"No, I'm _Sasuke,_ " he retorts in a sarcastic manner, but he can't help the wide grin on his face.

"Of course you're Shisui," Itachi sighs, sounding mock peeved. "Sasuke would never cry." He sits up with a groan, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm assuming this is the afterlife, then."

"It's not," Shisui answers, standing from his squat and running his hand over his eyes. He is _not_ crying dammit. "I don't know exactly how this happened, but Dumbledore-san and I are running theories. I'm pretty sure time flows differently here than in Konoha."

"Who?" Itachi inquires, raising an eyebrow. "And what language are we speaking? It's atrocious."

Shisui smirks a little. "Dumbledore-san is the Headmaster of this school, which is for _magic_. We've made several solid theories about the relationship between chakra and magic already, so no need to worry your head about those things. We're speaking English, and don't let anyone hear you say that. Come on, Itachi. Save the questions for later."

Itachi frowns, but sighs and does as he says, bending down to pick up his cloak. He then looks at Shisui and says in a very, very amused tone, "I'm taller than you now, Shisui."

Shisui scowls. "Shut up. How old are you? Twenty-two?"

"Twenty-one."

"I'm still _sixteen_ , so shut up."

.

Shisui leads Itachi up to Dumbledore's office, watching Itachi's admittedly amusing reactions to the various things in the castle and snickering loudly, only to receive a glare and a smack on the head for laughing.

He gives the gargoyle the password (which happens to have been switched back to "lemon drop" again) and it jumps out of the way. Itachi nearly throws a kunai (again), only to glare at Shisui for laughing (again) and is about to hit him (again) when Shisui skips up the spiral staircase, Itachi following.

Dumbledore looks up. "Ah, Shisui. Who might this be?"

"My cousin, Itachi Uchiha," Shisui answers promptly. "Itachi, meet Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts. He's been sheltering me for the past month or so. Dumbledore-san, this is Itachi, my cousin."

"A pleasure to meet you, Dumbledore-san," Itachi says politely, bowing.

"And I to you, Itachi," Dumbledore responds. "Shisui has spoken of you very much." He pauses. "Though I had imagined you far younger."

Itachi gives Shisui a sidelong glance, and Shisui's cheeks color a little. "Shut up, you."

"I hadn't even said anything," Itachi replies in that tone of voice that tells Shisui he's amused. "That might be because I was thirteen when that happened."

"Time _does_ flow differently here," Shisui adds. "Now we're _certain_ of it. Itachi's proof of that, though we still need to talk." He eyes Itachi's hitai-ate.

"Alright," sighs his not so little cousin. "I do need to be acquainted with this place, as well as being brought up to speed in your… theorizing."

"Just because you're smart doesn't mean I'm stupid," Shisui complains. "I'll have you know, Itachi, I was called a prodigy too."

"I _know_." Itachi rubs the bridge of his nose and exhales. "If you don't mind, Dumbledore-san, my _little cousin_ and I need to talk."

"Itachi, you utter _bastard_."

.

"Shisui, who's this?"

Shisui perks up, looking towards Harry, Hermione, and Ron. "Oh, hey," he calls with a grin. "This is my _little_ cousin, Itachi Uchiha."

Itachi looks like he's about to roll his eyes. "I am _twenty-one_ , Shisui."

"Yeah, so? I'd be twenty-four if I lived."

"Shisui, you are _Sasuke's_ age," Itachi sighs, rubbing his temples with long fingers.

Shisui feels a little queasy. "That little squirt? He's _sixteen_?"

"And taller than you," Itachi adds unnecessarily.

"Itachi, I hate you."

"I love you too," says Itachi in a deadpan, making the normally so emotional words sound strange. Itachi turns to the three who'd just come towards them. "Who are you?"

"I'm Hermione Granger, this is Harry Potter, and this is Ron Weasley," Hermione replies promptly. "You must be this cousin that Shisui talks about so often." She smirks deviously at him when Shisui feels like he's about to die of shame.

Thankfully Itachi decides that's enough humiliation for the day, and says, "I suppose you can tell me about those stories at a later date. Shisui and I should catch up, but if you three wish to, you can tag along."

.

Shisui doesn't even bat an eyelash when he finds another bed in his room and flops onto his immediately while Itachi looks around subtly and the wizards take everything in with wide eyed interest, taking seats on the ground while Itachi does so on the bed. He spots Hermione studying the altar intensely. Itachi's gaze lingers on it for the barest of seconds as well before moving on.

"How much do they know?" Itachi inquires.

"They know the outline of the Hidden Continent, the general idea of chakra, and where I'm from. They also know about the Sharingan, but nothing too much." Shisui folds his arms on his pillow and rests his chin on them. "What happened after the incident?"

"They thought I killed you afterwards," Itachi sighs. "Apparently your suicide note wasn't convincing enough."

Shisui's eyes narrow and he sits up. "But _I_ wrote the damn thing; hell, I even infused it with some of my chakra! _Amaterasu—_ I'm so sorry, Itachi."

"Hold up," interrupts Harry with a suspicious gleam to his eye. "Did you say _suicide note_? I thought you said you _drowned!_ "

"He did," Itachi agrees. "He drowned himself and destroyed all traces of his body."

"Except my eyes," Shisui muses, frowning. "I gave you my left eye, right?"

"Yes," Itachi confirms.

"That might be the cause for you being dragged here," Shisui continues, and a horrible feeling twists his gut into knots. _"That means you died, right?"_ He doesn't realize he's slipped into their original language until the words come out and the three in the room look confused.

" _Yes,"_ Itachi confirms once more, quiet. _"I_ did _die, and at Sasuke's hands like I hoped. I also hoped he would never find out about the mission, but apparently he did. One of Orochimaru's assistants, Kabuto, revived and bound powerful dead shinobi after joining forces with Madara—and I'll tell you the full story later. I was one of them, but the crow containing Kotoamatsukami I'd given to Naruto activated on me, and I was free from Kabuto's control. I eventually reversed the technique after using Izanami on him. Then… here."_

Shisui laces his fingers together, pressing them to his forehead and closing his eyes, taking slow, measured breaths. _"I'm so sorry. I should've taken that mission—"_

" _No,"_ Itachi interrupts, sounding horrified. _"Never. I think… I think Danzo realized you were too kind for that."_

" _No,_ you _are,"_ Shisui hisses, looking up to glare at his cousin. _"You are a_ pacifist _. You told me you_ never _wanted to kill anybody or anything! You_ hate _war, and Danzo asks you to_ slaughter _the entire clan by threatening Sasuke. You became a missing-nin for Konoha, for_ Sasuke _."_

Itachi is silent, watching him with dark eyes the same color as Shisui's own. _"You're crying,"_ he says simply, and Shisui starts, only just realizing, and scrubs desperately at his eyes. _Shinobi aren't supposed to cry, dammit._

" _I… I'm just so_ angry _, you know?"_

" _If it helps any, my life as a missing-nin wasn't that bad,"_ Itachi says mildly. _"Kisame was an… eccentric… partner. My main problem was with the fact that he smelled way too much like a fish. Though he_ is _half shark."_

Shisui laughs, but it's kind of watery, much to his embarrassment. _"I don't really want to know how he's half shark."_

" _I never really found out,"_ Itachi admits. _"I'm not entirely certain if I want to know. It can't be as bad as being Orochimaru though."_

" _Agreed."_

Shisui easily spots Harry, Hermione, and Ron leaving the room, but he pretends not to notice as the door shuts quietly with a click. He's rather grateful to them for being so considerate despite their blatant curiosity.

Itachi hasn't matured at all, Shisui realizes with a heavy heart. It's because Itachi never needed to mature in the first place. He hasn't changed much except in appearance, and now he's _older_ than Shisui…

"I'm sorry," Shisui murmurs, again, in English, and this time Itachi really does roll his eyes as he stands and comes to sit by him.

"It's not your fault," he chides. "You're a competent ANBU, certainly, but you _can't_ control what others can do."

Shisui gestures to his eyes wearily, a horrid attempt at a joke. Itachi smiles slightly anyways. "That doesn't count, Shisui."

"If that Danzo hadn't been able to get his hands on my eye, then I could've—!"

Itachi smacks the back of his head hard enough for Shisui to see stars, and he manages a strangled, "Fuck!"

"It's not your fault," he repeats sternly. "Stop blaming yourself. Are you going to blame me for not being able to stop Sasuke from deciding he wants to destroy the Leaf?"

"He wants to do _what_?" Shisui demands, sitting up straight immediately and ignoring the throbbing pain from Itachi's blow.

"He found out about the mission," Itachi answers. "He's gone a little… loopy."

Shisui stares disbelievingly at his cousin before flopping over onto the bed, burying his face into the pillow. "That little shit. I should liquefy him," he mutters, voice muffled by the pillow. "Just… I'm going to sleep."

The bed shifts, telling Shisui that Itachi's moved off, and Shisui breathes out slowly into the cloth. He can tell his cousin understands.

It's been a long, long day.

.

 **a/n:** One thing: _my computer is a motherfucking bitch that I want to slap upside the head._

Also, I'm taking a break from writing this week so brief hiatus.

 **Sneak peek:** _"We need to talk," Itachi says in his normal serious tone, though there's a note of urgency in his voice._


	8. Meeting the Grim

_Chapter Eight: Meeting the Grim_

.

"Shisui, has someone cast a genjutsu on you?"

Shisui freezes, his chopsticks halfway to his mouth before he sets them down slowly. "I don't believe so," he answers, frowning. "Why? Is my chakra disrupted?"

Itachi looks mildly disturbed, though Shisui knows his cousin well enough that if he's showing _any_ emotion at all it's pretty serious. "No, it's not," Itachi replies, index finger tapping slightly against the wood of the table in the kitchen as house-elves busy themselves and avoid eavesdropping.

"Then what do you mean?"

"It seems almost… _relaxed._ Right now, it's perfectly normal, but as soon as Moody-san approaches, it seems to completely relax your chakra so you don't pay attention to him," Itachi explains. "It's nothing like I've seen before, though it's hardly impossible to fix."

Shisui's eyebrows furrow and he props his cheek on his fist, lunch forgotten. "That makes me start to believe that _he's_ the one who put Harry's name in the Goblet, though Crouch-san is the one I'm getting the spidey sense from."

Itachi raises an eyebrow at the term "spidey" but makes no comment on it. "Does that mean they might be in cahoots?" he inquires with a perfectly straight face while Shisui struggles not to laugh.

"What are you doing, Itachi?" Shisui manages, swallowing his laughter, and straightens up. "Yeah, they might be," he sighs, slipping back into seriousness. "About this genjutsu, do you think you'll be able to fix it?"

Itachi's black eyes whirl into the Sharingan, and Shisui gets that tingly feeling of being watched from everywhere as he usually does whenever being subjected to the Sharingan. He sits still, waiting patiently for Itachi to be finished examining him.

After a few moments, his eyes bleed back to black. "There seems to be a small stain on your chakra that doesn't affect you until the man actually gets close to you," Itachi says thoughtfully. "I think I can remove it, but I'm not an expert. You should ask Dumbledore-san to help you with that."

Shisui shakes his head, and Itachi regards him with mild surprise. "I don't trust him as much as I trust you, Itachi," he replies sincerely. "Perhaps you should watch me and my interactions with Moody-san, how far they go."

Itachi nods. "I suppose that'll be alright, as long as the genjutsu doesn't hurt you," he concedes. "If there's _anything_ strange, however, I demand that you remove it immediately."

Shisui rolls his eyes and picks up his chopsticks. "Yes, Mother."

.

"How are you holding up?" Shisui inquires softly. Harry jerks in surprise before looking at him.

"'m fine," he grumbles. "Malfoy's being insufferable _again_. But I should be the one asking _you_ that question."

Shisui ignores the last part of what Harry said. "What about the other people? Do they still not believe you?"

"Most of them believe that I didn't put my name in the Goblet, thanks to you," Harry answers miserably as he pokes at his dinner. "But a lot of them, mostly Slytherins, are spreading the rumor that you only said all that because I was close to you."

"Ignore them," Ron growls. "They're just bloody morons."

"Marcus Flint hasn't said anything, oddly," Hermione says pensively. "It's a little strange; I actually saw him rebuking a couple of first years spreading the rumor a couple days ago."

Shisui grins. "It pays to have friends in all Houses," he replies cheerfully. "I'm still working on Malfoy-kun, but he'll come around eventually."

Ron looks like he wants to say something but decides against it while Harry grimaces. "That git?"

"He'd make a powerful ally," Shisui hums, sipping his tea. "At least his family." At their looks, Shisui quickly adds, "It's something you pick up if you're from a rather influential clan."

"You and Itachi were from an influential clan?"

Shisui laughs sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck. "Aha… didn't I tell you?"

Their pointed looks are enough information. Shisui opens his mouth but doesn't get a chance to say anything as Fred and George Weasley take seats on both sides of him. "Well!"

"If it isn't—"

"—Shisui—"

"What do you want?" Shisui cuts in, rolling his eyes at the twins' antics.

"We thought—"

"—the conversation—"

"—sounded interesting—"

"Oh okay," Shisui interrupts again, plowing right through the two twins. "So before I was interrupted rudely by these twins, I'm from an influential clan. You know that I'm from a clan, though, right?"

They all nod, the twins looking mildly affronted at the interruption. "You told us that," Hermione confirms.

"Yeah, we're one of two of the clans alive," Shisui continues before sighing. "Well… I suppose the Hyuuga are the last clan alive now, based off of what Itachi said…" He trails off and tries not to think of Aunt Mikoto and Uncle Fugaku, his parents, the kind civilian shopkeeper who gave him free inari…

"Who's Itachi?" Fred inquires, picking up the somber mood and changing the subject quickly.

"Cousin," Shisui says with forced brightness. "He's here, actually."

"Oh! You mean _that_ Itachi?" George adds, and Shisui notices, not for the first time, that most of their twin speak is probably planned beforehand.

"He's quite nice, though he seems shy," Harry remarks.

Shisui snorts. "Shy? Nah. He just doesn't know how to talk to people, so he keeps his mouth shut and doesn't say much so he doesn't offend anyone by accident. I had to _beat it_ into his head that when a kunoichi asks him how she looks in a dress, he's not supposed to be honest."

Ron chokes on his food in amusement and Hermione hands him his pumpkin juice, stifling a laugh of her own.

"It's really not his fault though," Shisui shrugs. "Like me, he was hailed as a prodigy and on top of that, he was the clan heir. Adding to that is the fact that he broke Kakashi-senpai's record on joining ANBU."

"ANBU?" Hermione questions.

"Elite of the elite," Shisui says shortly. "It's also the rank with the highest amount of death, permanent maiming, and mental trauma."

"Oh," Hermione says quietly, and they're all quiet for a few long moments.

Ron opens his mouth before closing it, looking desperately like he wants to ask a question. Shisui blinks. "Yes? What is it?"

Ron looks at him in surprise before swallowing and gathering his wits. "Um, that evening, when the Goblet was picking names…?"

"Yeah?"

"You… um… I don't mean anything bad by this, but you were bloody terrifying."

Shisui stares a little before sighing. "Was I? Sorry about that."

"My deepest apologies for interrupting you," comes a cool and collected voice, and Shisui turns around to see Itachi walking softly towards them. "May I borrow my cousin for a while?"

Shisui gives Itachi the pissiest look he can muster (which isn't much), but he stands up anyways. "Itachi, I am _not_ a _thing_."

"So this is Itachi!"

"I thought that—"

"—he'd be shorter—"

"—than Shisui—"

"—but we suppose—"

"—he's simply too tall—"

"—or Shisui's too short!"

"Shut up," Shisui grumbles, running a hand through his messy black hair. "What do you want?"

"We need to talk," Itachi says in his normal serious tone, though there's a note of urgency in his voice.

Shisui is instantly alert. "What is it?"

"Come on."

Itachi leads him out of the Great Hall, ignoring the feminine (and a couple of masculine) squeals of adoration as they pass by the Ravenclaws and Beauxbaton students.

"Are you taking me to the Forbidden Forest?" Shisui asks suspiciously. "I told you, Dumbledore-san and I are—"

"No, it's not that," Itachi interrupts sharply. "I found something—or rather, some _one_."

Just as Itachi says that, a shaggy black dog come into view, glaring with angry eyes and with a human light, much like one of Kakashi-senpai's dogs. A barrier surrounds him, preventing him from leaving.

"He turned into a human," Itachi explains. "And turned back into a dog when I appeared. I trapped him with a quick seal around the area."

"An Animagus then?" Shisui passes through the barrier, designed to keep things in rather than out. "I promise you, I won't hurt you unless you pose a threat to Hogwarts," he says to the dog. "Transform back, please."

Warily, he complies and shifts into a human man; someone who might've been handsome if it weren't for the grime and lack of shaving and haircuts. "Are you a criminal?"

"No," the man retorts, his eyes dark and irritated, but truthful. "I was accused of something I didn't commit and thrown into Azkaban without a trial. You should _know_ who I am."

Shisui takes a seat and tilts his head. "No, I don't know," he says mildly. "Are you one of Dumbledore-san's?"

At Dumbledore's name, the man perks up. "You know him?"

"Yes," Shisui answers. "I work for him."

"I'm Sirius Black."

"Shisui Uchiha," he replies. "That's my cousin, Itachi. Black-san, why are you here?"

"I'm here to see my godson, Harry," Sirius says with startling alacrity. "I haven't seen him in a while, mustn't let him see me either, or else he'll worry I'll get caught…"

"Hmm… now that you mention it, I _have_ heard about you from Dumbledore-san," Shisui muses. "Harry's a good kid, of course he'd worry about you. He's doing fine."

"Is he really?" Sirius demands eagerly. "Tell me, how tall is he now? Is he eating properly? Does he—" Sirius breaks off sheepishly, sitting back down on his haunches like a dog. "Sorry. He doesn't tell me much via owl."

Shisui feels kind of bad for the man sitting in front of him. "Look, Black-san, I know you're probably tired of being on the run, but you've still got to be careful," he cautions. "I'm not saying that I'm your enemy, but what if I was?"

Sirius deflates with a sigh. "Yeah, I guess."

"He's a couple centimeters shorter than me," Shisui says, "and yes, he's eating properly."

Sirius grins. "Thanks. It's not quite as good as seeing him in person but…" he trails off.

"I'll tell him you were looking for him," Shisui replies with a small smile. "He'll rage a little before appreciating it, though." Shisui rises and dusts himself off. "Well, stay safe, Black-san."

Itachi dismisses the barrier, and Sirius shifts back into his dog form, bolting off.

"Making friends?" Itachi inquires softly.

Shisui just laughs.

.

 **a/n:** IM SO SORRY HHHNG

I got the stomach flu. Period cramps got nothing on stomach flu ones, I'm tellin ya.

 **Sneak peek:** _Shisui smiles sadly. "It comes with loss."_


	9. Resolution

_Chapter Nine: Resolving_

.

A week later, the students are chattering about a trip to Hogsmeade, a town nearby.

"You wanna go?" Shisui asks, drumming his fingers against the table. Itachi looks up from his meal thoughtfully.

"Perhaps," he says. "But one of us should stay here. I think I will. The students here, while not unpleasant, are also rather noisy. I think I like the Ravenclaw and Slytherin houses, because they aren't all that loud." Slyly, Itachi adds, "Gryffindor suits you."

Shisui flushes. "I _am_ not that loud," he protests, feeling a faint buzzing in his head. "But suit yourself."

Itachi gives him one of his smiles, a slight upturn to his lips. "Ah, I believe I will. Say, what do you think of Rita Skeeter-san?"

Shisui grimaces. " _Irritating as hell._ I haven't even talked to her yet, but based off of what Harry says about her… I've been avoiding her like the plague."

Itachi makes an amused sound. "I as well. Then… do you know of the first task?"

Shisui shrugs helplessly. "Dumbledore-san isn't telling me, since he thinks it'll be fun to watch me struggle to figure it out. It's not like he's going to send _dragons_ or those vicious mermaids in the lake after the students or something."

"You never know," Itachi says. "So it's decided. You're going to Hogsmeade with the noisy students and I'm staying here in the peace and quiet. Perhaps I can, ah, _hang out_ , is the term, with Luna-san. She's very entertaining to speak to."

"Very eccentric, from what I gathered about her," Shisui agrees with a grin. "I think I'll go with Flint-san and try and talk to Malfoy-san. Maybe even try and get that girl, Butterfly-chan or something, to go out with Harry." He smirks.

Itachi honors Shisui with a faint laugh. "You go do that, Shisui," he says as the bell rings, signaling the beginning of lunch for the students.

"I think I'll go join them again," Shisui says thoughtfully. "They're good company." He tries to stand, only to stumble. He glares at his foot, caught around the edge of the table leg, and slips it out. _I'm ANBU, I shouldn't be this goddamned clumsy,_ he grumbles silently. Itachi says nothing about it, merely studying him.

.

As the students head out of the school to head off towards Hogsmeade, he looks around for Marcus Flint and spots him, only a few feet ahead of Malfoy. Cheerily, he all but skips towards the former, tapping him lightly on the shoulder. "Hello!" he proclaims.

"What do you want?"

"I can't even greet a friend?" Shisui asks, mock pouting.

Marcus gives him a flat look, at which Shisui bursts out laughing. "Oh come on. I promise, I didn't put _anything_ on your shoulder. And the recoloring of your walls in the dormitory wasn't my fault."

Hastily, the Slytherin checks his robes and glares at Shisui when he finds nothing on there. "Yeah, right," he growls, though it's playful.

" _I_ wanted to paint the walls blue," Shisui adds quite happily as they board the train and take a seat in a compartment. "The twins thought it'd look better in red and gold and bullied me into it."

Marcus snorts. "We all know you can beat _anyone_ in this school in a game of words, Shisui. You would make a great Slytherin."

Shisui beams. "Why thank you! It's a mark of a good ninja, you see." Leaning in conspiratorially, he says, "You see, in our school, if you can prove that you cheated without the teacher noticing, you get _extra credit._ "

The other rolls his eyes, but looks interested despite himself. "Is that so?"

"Yep," Shisui confirms. "Once, I filched all of the answers that I _knew_ were wrong from the students beside me and pointed out whose answers were whose. I got a _two hundred percent._ But in all honesty, I stole that idea from Kakashi-senpai."

Marcus snickers. "Wow. Who's Kakashi Senpai anyways?"

"Kakashi Hatake is his name," Shisui corrects. "Senpai is an honorific—it means 'senior'. But Kakashi-senpai is a child prodigy and is also very terrifying."

"If he scares _you_ I don't think I want to meet him," Marcus says dryly.

"But he's really nice," Shisui continues. "He nearly died defending a teammate so many times that I can't even count."

Marcus is quiet for a moment. "I wonder why people would do that."

Shisui smiles sadly, feeling his stomach churn a little. "It comes with loss."

.

"Are you… going to the _joke shop?_ " Shisui asks incredulously.

"Yeah," Marcus answers, almost defensively. "To get the Weasley twins back."

"I can help," Shisui offers with a smirk. "Nice to change targets once in a while, you know."

Marcus pauses before nodding. "That would be appreciated. Are you going to ask for something back?"

"Hmm… I'll prank the Gryffindors for a month if you manage to get Malfoy-san to be civil," Shisui responds.

"Deal."

Harry, Hermione, and Ron pass by, waving briefly at Shisui and giving Marcus wary looks before passing on, chattering to each other.

"Also, do you have anything that I can use to prank my cousin with?"

Marcus blinks as they enter the shop before giving a wicked grin. "I have the perfect item…"

.

"Itachi!" Shisui singsongs, trotting up to his cousin cheerfully. "Guess what your big cousin got for you!"

"Shisui, I'm older _and_ taller than you," Itachi deadpans. "What is it?"

Shisui whips out a bag of chocolates and waves them in Itachi's face. "They're _really_ good," he says. Itachi cautiously takes the bag, scrutinizing it carefully.

"I didn't poison it or anything!" Shisui protests. "Can't you trust your best friend?"

Itachi doesn't say anything to that, simply opening the bag and pulling out a chocolate and inspects it carefully. Several students stop to watch as Itachi decides it's safe and puts it into his mouth delicately.

After chewing it for a moment, Itachi audibly swallows and presses his lips together. "Was that… _vomit_ flavored?"

Shisui smiles disarmingly. "I don't know, was it?"

Itachi gives him A Look and Shisui grabs one of the chocolates from inside at random, popping it into his mouth and chewing happily.

"How can you _eat_ that?" Itachi demands.

"What? It tastes like chocolate," Shisui answers, not lying at all. Though, there _is_ a charm on the chocolates keyed to his magic/chakra signature…

"If chocolate tastes like _vomit_ , certainly…" Itachi trails off and closes the bag. "Ah, Dumbledore-san wants to talk to us."

Shisui has a suspicion about what he wants to say, but he simply nods. "Come on, then, Itachi."

The crowds around them disperse, a couple still snickering at Itachi's suffering with the vomit-chocolate. Once they're alone in the hallways, Itachi says, "Do you have any idea what he wishes to speak to us about?"

"Yeah," Shisui murmurs. "A pretty good one."

They make their way up the spiral staircase after giving the gargoyle the password, spotting the Headmaster sitting at his desk. "Ah, Shisui, Itachi. Take a seat."

The two cousins do as Dumbledore asks, Shisui settling into an armchair. "Have you figured it out yet?"

"Partially." Dumbledore procures a simple stone and sets it on the desk. Itachi peers at it curiously. Shisui just feels sick.

"The moment I spotted this, I assumed it worked similarly to a Portkey—I assume you two know what that is?" Shisui and Itachi nod, confirming his statement. "I've been looking over the enchantments and residual magic for the entire time you've been here, Shisui, as you should know."

"What have you found?"

"There are runes," Dumbledore answers. "I'm not an expert on them, and these are a rare type of them, but I didn't want to ask the Runes Professor for help, as I assume you want your privacy. But I've translated plenty of them, along with figuring out many of the spells cast on this stone. Whoever created this Dimensional Portkey was a powerful wizard or witch."

Shisui stares at the stone. "What, exactly, were the enchantments?"

"An incredibly powerful concealment charm, the transportation charm, one of the most, not _the_ most powerful healing charm I've ever seen, a powerful enhancement charm and a couple of minor charms to preserve the rock. There are quite a few more that I have to decipher." Dumbledore hesitates. "This stone… it's no ordinary stone. It's what we call the Resurrection Stone, said to be able to bring back the dead, but incompletely."

Itachi stiffens. Shisui's fingers dig into the fabric of his seat. He swallows and forces his voice to work. "What… what were the runes?"

Dumbledore looks tired, but he pulls out a sheet of parchment and reads clearly, "Preserve. Heal. Revive. Two. Opportunity. Stealthy. Sacrifice. Water. Connection. Death." He sets the parchment down. "There are more runes that I have yet to translate."

"Itachi, was Danzo dead?"

"Yes," Itachi says, making the connection as fast as he does. "But I heard that he'd destroyed your eye in the process."

"Then I suppose that's why he's not here," Shisui says thoughtfully. His knuckles have turned white, he notices, so he loosens his hold on the fabric. "The rune 'preserve' is possibly for the rock. 'Heal' is the reason why I have my eyes back. 'Revive' is why Itachi and I aren't dead. 'Stealthy' and 'sacrifice'…" He frowns. "I'll have to look into that. But water… it's probably because that's where it was located, the Naka River."

"And 'connection' is you and me," Itachi says quietly. "I have your eye. 'Death'… it's self-explanatory. But 'two' and 'opportunity' are a little confusing."

"We'll have to think more into this," Dumbledore muses, fingers laced together. "I have my own opinions on the matter, but I'll leave them out until you've reached a conclusion. Dismissed."

.

 **a/n:** AMAZING I UPDATED ON TIME.

So what do _you_ guys think "two", "opportunity", "stealthy", and "sacrifice" mean? And hey, here are a few answers to your questions.

Regarding the Guest who mentioned that Shisui wouldn't give up information:

None of what Shisui said was actually relevant, nor was it a secret. Not technically. This is mainly because normally, his hitae-ate would tell anybody where he's from, and Uchihas are relatively easy to pick out.

Also, Shisui, Shisui. Of course he's not going to send dragons or mermaids after the students… _cough-cough._

 **Sneak peek:** _Shisui is quite certain that he drowned._

 _He still remembers the sensation, the sensation of fighting every single instinct in his body telling him to find air._

 _He's also quite certain he had been blind when he drowned. Danzo had stolen one eye, and he'd given his other to Itachi. (He hopes his precious little cousin is using it right.)_

 _So when his eyes open with a sharp intake of air, he's naturally quite surprised when light floods his vision and air fills his lungs. Experimentally he exhales._


	10. Over the Waterfall

_Chapter Ten: Over the Waterfall_

.

"How do I react when I'm close to Moody?"

It's Monday, the day before the first task. Itachi hums, clicking his chopsticks. "He doesn't come near you often," Itachi says. "But you just never look in his direction, not even a passing glance. He tries not to look in our direction though. It's clear he's nervous about me, because he's probably figured out that I noticed the genjutsu by now."

Shisui makes a noise, propping his cheek on his fist, thinking to himself. "How do you think Harry's going to do on the task? I haven't seen him all day."

"He was with Hermione-san," Itachi answers, not at all bothered by Shisui's sudden change in subject. "I believe he was perfecting the Summoning Spell, Accio."

"I wonder how he's going to implement it?" Shisui ponders aloud, drumming his free hand on the table. The rhythmic sound calms him slightly.

"There are a multitude of ways," Itachi replies, shrugging. "I suppose we will have to find out tomorrow, along with what the task is."

.

Shisui passes by Harry, whispering a quick "good luck", and passes by the tent to take a seat in the stadium. As soon as he looks to the arena, he looks on in horror. "No," he says.

Itachi blinks.

" _No way_ they are setting dragons on them," Shisui says disbelievingly before deflating and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "At least I know where the roars were coming from…"

After a while, the first champion, Cedric Diggory, enters the arena, looking nervous but determined all the same. Shisui watches with horrified fascination as he gets the golden egg, narrowly dodging attacks from the dragon. Bagman's commentary helps none.

"Oh-my-god," Shisui squeaks in one breath as Delacour exits the tent. "No-no-no-no-no not another one! They're gonna _die_."

Itachi pats Shisui on the back consolingly while the Weasley twins, sitting next to him, snort in amusement.

Then Krum comes out, and the crowd cheers enthusiastically. Shisui is half-tempted to cover his eyes but that would be embarrassing. Or more embarrassing than what he's done already.

He looks at Karkaroff with the stink-eye for his blatant favoritism but his irritation quickly fades into worry when Harry, looking like he's about to faint (which isn't much different from Shisui), steps out of the tent, clutching at his wand.

Then the dragon is unleashed, and Harry shouts out clearly, " _Accio Firebolt!_ "

A broom comes flying in, and Itachi says, "Ah. That's what he's using it for."

Quickly, Harry gets onto the broom and sails through the air gracefully. Shisui watches, a little envious, as he dances in the air around the dragon. Hermione and Ron are wearing matching grins as their friend retrieves the golden egg in the shortest amount of time.

"That must hurt," Shisui winces, sympathetic for the wound in his shoulder.

"Yeah," Fred says from beside him, voice a couple octaves higher. "I'm kind of glad we're not in the tournament."

"Eh," Shisui says dismissively. "It's not that bad."

Ron looks at him with a raised eyebrow. "You were the one who was panicking."

"If only because I'm worried about them," Shisui retorts. "While I'm _certain_ I can shunshin there fast enough, it's still dangerous."

"Why didn't any of them just use a binding curse?" Itachi asks mildly. "Or put it to sleep?"

"I'd have just shunshined to the egg."

"Not everyone has the moniker _Shunshin no Shisui_ , Shisui," Itachi chides patronizingly. Shisui smacks his cousin on the arm, still feeling a little lightheaded from the adrenaline.

.

"You did great, Harry!" Ron shouts eagerly, careful not to smack Harry on the back. Shisui smiles from a distance.

"Congratulations on being the youngest _and_ the fastest," he says, reaching over and ruffling his hair if only to provoke a reaction from him.

Harry gives him a flat look and Hermione stifles a laugh.

Marcus passes by and waves at Shisui before saying, "Congratulations, Potter." It sounds like the words are painful for him to say. Harry looks rather surprised and before he can thank the Slytherin, Marcus has already walked off.

"Nice hair color," Fred calls with a cheeky grin.

Confused, Harry looks suspiciously at Shisui. Ron and Hermione look like they're struggling not to laugh and Itachi's lips quirk up into a ghost of a smile.

Shisui cheerily holds up a mirror, and the now pink-haired Harry glares at Shisui, who innocently shows his paint stained hand and runs away.

.

Shisui frowns, reading over his notes from the cross-examining for the umpteenth time. There is no evidence… but there's something about Crouch that sets him off.

He doesn't trust his thoughts about Mad-Eye Moody mainly because of the genjutsu. Grimacing, Shisui rests his cheek on his palm. With a noise of frustration, Shisui stands and shuffles the papers together before hiding them in a trapped drawer.

Shisui's a prodigy. But genius has its limits, and he's cut out only for the battlefield and killing. When it's a tamer case, like this one, he can't think.

Especially not with this killer headache. Shisui flops onto his bed, burying his face into the now-familiar pillow, breathing in slowly. It's become a constant presence, and he knows it's unnatural. He wonders dimly if it's from the genjutsu, and resolves to tell Itachi about it the next time he sees his cousin.

.

"Shisui! Wake up!"

Shisui jolts awake at his cousin's sharp tone, regretting it when his head pounds in retaliation. "Hgghk," he groans, ever so articulate. He blinks blearily at Itachi. "Yeah?"

"What's wrong with you?"

"What did I do now?" Shisui asks sleepily, not quite catching on. Itachi's face is blurring in funny ways, and it looks kind of like he's doing mitosis or something.

Itachi snaps his fingers in Shisui's face loudly, and he winces at the noise. "Keep yourself awake. I told you, Shisui, to inform me if there was anything abnormal." Despite the harsh words and tone, Shisui can hear undertones of worry that warms Shisui's heart a little, though he's not too sure what there is to worry about. He voices this sentiment.

Much to Shisui's surprise Itachi curses eloquently in both languages. "Wha's wrong?" he slurs.

Itachi doesn't answer, scanning over Shisui carefully with his Sharingan activated. His cousin presses his mouth into a firm line, something he always does when he's displeased by something. Before Shisui can repeat his previous question, Itachi's crimson eyes meets his hazy ones and puts him to sleep.

.

Impact—so hard it numbs his body, but for the barest of moments before the pain sets in. Shock follows it, sending his heartbeat into an unnaturally fast staccato.

Then the burn, rising from his chest to fill his body.

After that, panic, his heartbeat faster and louder, filling his ears with the drumming song of his quickening heart as he struggles _not_ to fight.

He is blind, unable to see, and it merely makes the fear more prominent as he hits the bottom with a silent gasp. Then there is a bright white that he should not be able to see, and he knows no more.

.

Shisui is quite certain that he drowned.

He still remembers the sensation, the sensation of fighting every single instinct in his body telling him to find air.

He's also quite certain he had been blind when he drowned. Danzo had stolen one eye, and he'd given his other to Itachi. (He hopes his precious little cousin is using it right.)

So when his eyes open with a sharp intake of air, he's naturally quite surprised when light floods his vision and air fills his lungs. Experimentally he exhales.

"You're awake," comes a mostly impassive voice, but he can still detect strains of relief evident. _Itachi?_ Shisui thinks sleepily before the memories come rushing back with the force of a train.

"Itachi?" he asks, voice horribly dry. Wordlessly, Itachi helps him sit up, adjusting pillows behind him for it to be more comfortable. "How long?"

"A week." Itachi holds out a glass of water which Shisui eyes warily but takes hesitantly anyways, his cousin helping him with the glass.

"A week?"

"Yes." Itachi sets the empty glass down. "We had to hire professional curse breakers to remove it because it had progressed so far."

Instantly, Shisui feels guilty. "So—"

"Don't even say it," Itachi warns. When he's satisfied that Shisui will keep his mouth shut, he adds, "We were able to trace it back to Moody, and he's currently under questioning."

Shisui is about to reply when he hears footsteps outside of the hospital wing, and the door opens quietly. He blinks when he sees Harry, Hermione, and Ron standing there.

"Hi," he says awkwardly.

"You're awake!" bellows Ron excitedly before turning to the still-open door. "Shisui's awake!"

The Gryffindor who Shisui distantly recalls as Neville Longbottom shyly pokes his head through the door along with the redheaded twins. "Welcome back to the world of the living, mate!"

Shisui smiles a little wryly at how close it hits to home. "Thanks."

.

 **a/n:** I fractured my ankle on a 3 inch stair. GG me 11/10 IGN keep it up

Also: I'm taking a break from writing my actual stories; it might last a week to a month, but it won't go over a month.

Sorry! ^^"


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